Ireland Training: I don't think we're in Kansas anymore…an overview 8/27 - 8/30

Ireland Training:  I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore…

Written by:  Amy sitting in the living room of the Bettystown house 9/6

Our first look at Ireland was Thursday 8/28 at 6 am local time when the plane touched down.  Customs was a breeze!  












Even as sleep deprived as we were, collecting our bags took no time at all.  Not only were they quickly loaded onto the conveyer belt, but they were easy to spot since my mother had whipped out 12 daisies made of yarn so we could quickly identify our luggage from the million other bags that look like ours.

However, our Ireland Training began right after that.




For those that do not speak Amy-ese, whenever adversity strikes, I like to think of this as some kind of training.  For example, when Devan was first born, he was up every 20 minutes and could be cranky on a dime.  At the time, I was occasionally baffled by his lightning fast mood swings.  Ker and I would try everything to figure it out.  But, what I’ve come to understand after having 3 kids is that children train their parents—not the other way around.  Every time they wake up in the middle of the night wanting to play and won’t go back to sleep, every time they scream for no discernable reason and refuse to be comforted no matter what you do, every time you have to leave a restaurant or a grocery store because they are letting it all hang out there for the world to see they are training you.  It’s called Parent Training (similar to Puppy Training without the treats and cute puppy breath).   Parent Training is how you become the parent you are supposed to be.  If your children were perfect, you would not be a parent—you’d be a babysitter.  Instead, children teach you how to be the parent you never wanted to be but actually are underneath all the new age books you’ve read.  It’s how children brand you as their parent and not some other kid’s parent.  It’s a good thing, I promise.  Whenever I hear the high-pitched screams of a toddler in a rage, I think “good for you baby!  Get that parent under control!"

So, anytime life hands you lemons, think of it as the universe trying to train you and listen.